Henry held the wooden sword in his hands as he readied himself with basic magic buffs, just as he had done before facing Kevin.

“I will yield the first move.”

As if it were a given, Bern invited Henry to strike first.

For Henry, it was the perfect opportunity.

“Gladly.”

Whoosh!

Thanks to his swift movements, Henry narrowed the distance between himself and Bern in an instant. He thrusted his wooden sword forward like a spear, without slowing down one bit.

Bern leaned sideways, perfectly dodging the incoming attack. In the same motion, he brought his knee up, aiming for Henry’s abdomen.

Thud!

Henry blocked the knee attack with his hand. In spite of that, it still caused Henry significant damage. If not for his magical buffs, that single blow would have rendered him helpless.

‘Mm?’

Bern’s eyes widened as Henry stopped his attack. He could not believe that it had been blocked so easily.

‘...it must have been a coincidence.’

Although it was shocking, all Henry had achieved so far was blocking one strike. Bern knew it would be foolish to allow Henry to throw him off and gain the upper hand.

Bern swiftly unleashed a series of attacks.

Woosh!

Bern deliberately telegraphed his attacks and swung his sword broadly, in order to test Henry. However, his destructive power was not held back in the slightest.

As Bern swung with heavy strikes, Henry leaned his upper body slightly, dodging each swing. Then, he took advantage of the weakness in Bern’s attacks.

‘Oh?’

Henry responded in the ideal way one should respond to attacks with such large movements. Noticing the flaw in Bern’s attacks, he raised his sword diagonally.

Thud!

The two men had polar opposite expressions on their faces as their swords collided.

‘Was the Young Master’s sword always this heavy?’

Bern felt pure admiration for Henry’s sudden show of skill, but also a definite sense of doubt. Henry’s body looked like he had never trained a day in his life. Despite this, Bern felt the same strength in Henry’s sword that he felt when sparring with his own subordinates.

Bern looked more and more perplexed. Although he was certainly suspicious as to how Henry had advanced so suddenly, he was driven more by curiosity.

‘What is this? Is there something I’m not aware of?’

Bern was the one who had trained many of the men in the estate, including Kevin. No man had ever showcased such an absurd leap in ability under his teaching.

‘I’ll have to push him a little harder.’

His curiosity had ignited a strong fire inside of him. He had now completely done away with his initial goal of moderately testing out Henry’s ability.

This time, he decided to use an unorthodox method of trickery to test Henry’s wit and ability to think on his feet. After all, one’s true skill lay in their defensive capabilities, not their offensive skills.

Whoooosh!

The speed of Bern’s sword strikes increased even more.

The wooden sword twisted and swiped to the right. It was a sincere attack by Bern, with minimal movement and maximum power behind it.

But…

Thud!

It was a highly skilled attack. But Henry raised his wooden sword and deflected it away with relative ease.

‘Oh ho, you parried this?’

The attack was a tricky move that even Kevin struggled to defend against. But somehow Henry had been able to stop it.

‘No wonder he’s the commander.’ Henry thought to himself. He was equally impressed with Bern as Bern was with him, as Bern’s skill level was far beyond his expectations.

‘With this kind of skill, what is he doing rotting away in the countryside?’

Henry had observed the knights of the imperial family for decades, and that was the basis for his standards of swordsmanship. Of course, he did not intend to compare their aura levels. He was only interested in finding out Bern’s abilities in swordsmanship alone.

That was why Bern’s skills stood out even more.

Thud!

The bout continued. The longer it dragged on, the more Henry felt pushed to his limits.

‘As expected, I can’t win against a real swordsman, huh?’

This felt completely different from when he had dueled with Kevin. Henry was preoccupied with blocking Bern’s attacks, and in rare moments when he attempted to go on the offensive, Bern would effortlessly evade each attack.

The two continued to trade blows several times, before Bern suddenly interrupted the action. He smiled as he spoke.

“Amazing.”

“What do you mean?”

“Why have you been hiding these skills all this time?”

“I’ve simply copied what I’ve observed a couple of times.”

‘You learned this much from just observation?’

Henry was definitely skilled. Skilled enough to ridicule Bern’s beloved disciple, Kevin. However, what stood out wasn’t his swordsmanship, but his combat instincts.

‘His movements are definitely not based on sword skills. That can only mean that his combat instincts are…’

Bern could not help but think that perhaps Henry was a phenomenon; a diamond in the rough. Otherwise, Henry’s performance would have made no sense at all.

As Bern thought to himself, Henry spoke.

“You’ve exceeded my expectations.”

“S-sorry?”

Bern was taken aback by Henry’s sudden respectful tone.

“If my honorifics cause you discomfort, you don’t have to worry about it. After all, you’re going to be my master in swordsmanship, so it is only right that I speak with you formally.”

“Ah, i-is that so?”

It was a show of respect that not even Kevin had ever displayed, but Henry just felt that this was the right thing to do. A disciple’s job was to respect their master.

‘He’s even quick-witted about such things.’

As Bern had quickly noticed, Henry had excellent combat instincts. In Henry’s previous life, he had spent more of his years in war than in peace, and this had sharpened his combat instincts tremendously. He had also witnessed the skills of the previous emperor, who was known to possess the best swordsmanship in the whole empire, every day. He had built his foundation from sheer observation alone, imitating what he had observed each day.

Henry needed even more real-life swordsmanship experience, in order to hone his skills to the same level as his impressive combat instincts.

“Master, the swordsmanship technique you are using. Is it Imperial swordsmanship?”

“Yes. For most Imperial men, it is standard practice to learn Imperial swordsmanship.”

Imperial swordsmanship. This was another reason why Henry had decided to give up on the academy. It had been created by the previous emperor, Golden Jackson. It functioned as a good foundation for any sword style, which was why the academy taught it as well.

‘Looks like wherever I go, Imperial swordsmanship is the basic foundation.’

As long as one met a good master, anyone could learn Imperial swordsmanship. It was a one-size-fits-all foundational style. Did this mean that the students enrolled into the swordsmanship academy were nothing but fools? No, not necessarily so. The academy had its own benefits as well. Aside from producing many great leaders, the biggest strength of the academy was the huge number of connections that it could provide.

It was the so-called ‘school network’.

Widely recognized as a prestigious educational institute, the swordsmanship academy had many outstanding seniors, and most knights took the academy’s graduates to be their apprentices.

For this reason alone, many who wanted their children to be successful sent their children to the swordsmanship academy while paying the exorbitant tuition fees. Even the Nobles sent their children to the academy to kickstart their careers.

“Then, Master, will our lesson start right away?”

“This is… the formalities are so awkward. Anyway, teaching won’t be that difficult. We can consider this the first lesson, but let me ask you something. What do you think is the most important thing that you need right now, Young Master?”

Bern made the disciple question himself, like any teacher would. Henry pondered over the question for just a brief moment before answering almost immediately.

“I think it’s stamina.”

“Why?”

“Because in order to do anything, one needs a strong physical foundation first.”

It was the most basic and standard answer. Bern replied with a smile.

“Of course, ‘stamina’ isn’t wrong. After all, one needs to be physically strong in order to survive until the very end. Did you feel that you were lacking anything from our sparring session earlier?”

“I think everything was lacking. I am like a blank canvas.”

“That’s correct. But if I were to be specific, I’d say that the most basic foundation of all swordsmanship is footwork.”

Footwork.

It was only when Bern said ‘footwork’ that Henry finally realized what the foundation of good swordsmanship truly was.

‘Right, even Golden said the same thing. Everything starts with good footwork.’

Despite his realization, Henry still had doubts.

‘But just mere footwork alone can have such an impact?’

The previous emperor himself had emphasized the importance of footwork. But mages usually had the mindset that anything that they lacked, they could replace it with something else. Henry had given no credence to the emperor’s words at the time.

“Looking at your expression, it seems like you don’t understand. Then, I will personally show you what the difference is.”

Bern lowered the wooden sword onto the dirt and kicked it a distance away.

“From now on, Young Master, I will only defend and avoid your attacks. Please attack me freely.”

“You underestimate me, Master.”

“This is also a lesson.”

“Okay, then.”

Although it was meant as a lesson, Henry took this as a provocation from his master. Again, he began to arm himself with magic buffs.

“Then let’s get started.”

After casting the magic buffs, Henry grabbed his wooden sword straight away. He rushed towards Bern and swiftly thrust his sword.

Whoosh!

The wind cracked and let out a sharp noise as the sword flew forward. However, Bern maintained his smile and lightly dodged Henry’s attack.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Henry’s attacks continued.

However, unlike in their first sparring session, Henry was not able to deliver a single blow.

He continued to make dozens of attempts.

Tap.

When Henry swung his sword towards Bern’s chin, Bern dodged with ease again before jabbing Henry’s back with his index finger.

“Now, let’s end this here.”

“Huff, puff, phew…”

Even though he was armed with magic, Henry’s body was still so unfit that he found himself short of breath. In addition, he had been so completely immersed in his offense that he had swung his sword non-stop, consuming his stamina rather severely.

Seeing Henry gasping for breath, Bern said, “Young Master, look below your feet.”

At Bern’s direction, Henry looked down at the ground beneath him.

There were countless footprints embedded into the dirt of the sparring ground.

“Would you care to compare your footprints with mine?”

There was no difficulty in distinguishing their footprints because of their different foot sizes.

Henry compared the two men’s footprints, as Bern suggested.

“...Mm?”

After comparing for a while, Henry realized the difference between the two men’s footprints.

“Do you see what the difference is?”

“The range of our movement is different.”

“Exactly. Compared to my footprints here, which remain within a circle, your footwork is very irregular.”

“But isn’t it normal to be irregular when on the offensive?”

“No. An attack should be executed only after proper observation. You should only decide where and how to attack once you know your opponent’s range of action.”

It made sense. Should two people of equal power face each other, victory or defeat would be decided by who was more observant.

‘I knew this was different from magic, but this is way too different.’

Magic also required keen observation. However, victory was often decided by how accurately and quickly a mage utilized his mana, rather than his observation skills.

Henry could not help but feel that it was necessary to explore this new field in order to fully harness its potential.

“Since one moves in a circle, the footwork technique of Imperial swordsmanship got the name ‘Circle Step’. What you need to work on is your physical strength and footwork. So, to start, we will focus on these two things.”

“Physical strength aside, how does one improve their footwork?”

“Haha, you’re an impatient one. There’s no end to training, but how about this? If you can land just a single strike on me while using the proper footwork, we can move on to swordsmanship.”

“Yes, I understand.”

At his master’s friendly challenge, Henry smirked. He could not help but feel a sense of excitement. Despite the knowledge he held, and the power he had possessed in his previous life, he was excited that he could still be taught a lesson by someone else.

Henry’s eyes lit up with enthusiasm and confidence.